Lot 98: Ralph Rumney , 1934-2002 Paesaggio oil on board

signed; also signed, titled and dated on the reverse oil on board

44 by 62.5cm.; 17¼ by 24½in.

Born in Newcastle in 1934, Rumney was brought up in Halifax, the son of a vicar. Intellectually precocious, his avant-garde inclinations took him to Paris and Europe where he managed to seemingly meet everyone of note. His first one man exhibition in England was at the New Vision Gallery in London in 1956, and the following year he was the sole British participant in the founding of International Situationiste. He was subsequently expelled in 1959, although he remained in contact with many of his fellows throughout his life and has accounted for him being rather better known outside Britain. By the early 1960s he had become disillusioned with the gallery system and worked predominantly as a writer and broadcaster, mostly in France. His artistic output was relatively large, although much is now lost as a result of his travels and the fact that, as his friends recalled, his finances and living conditions fluctuated wildly. However, this mildly peripatetic life outside Britain has meant that until recently his work was much overlooked. His paintings from the 1950s have a very distinctive character which naturally carries a good deal of European feeling, and offers a very useful reminder that British art of the period could be a good deal more cosmopolitan than is sometimes remembered.